"It's time Rex Tillerson step down or be removed,"
said Gigi Kellett of Corporate Accountability International, following an
announcement on Thursday that ExxonMobil will pay $2 million for violating U.S.
sanctions against Russian officials while the now-secretary of state was the
company's CEO.

"This is nothing more than a parking ticket."
—Gigi Kellett, Corporate Accountability International

"ExxonMobil demonstrated reckless disregard for U.S.
sanction requirements," according to enforcement filingreleased by the Treasury Department's
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which issued the penalty. Though the
fine is reportedly the maximum penalty allowed, it's pittance to one of the
world's most profitable and powerful corporations, which last year reported
a profit of $7.8 billion.

OFAC says ExxonMobil violated sanctions against Russian
officials in May 2014, by "signing eight legal documents related to oil
and gas projects in Russia with Igor Sechin, the President of Rosneft,"
Russia's state-owned oil company. The sanctions were established two months earlier by
then-President Barack Obama, in response to the Russian government's actions in
Ukraine.

In a statement Thursday, ExxonMobil claimed it "followed the clear
guidance from the White House and Treasury Department when its representatives
signed the documents," and that "OFAC is trying to retroactively
enforce a new interpretation" of the sanctions, adding, "OFAC's
action is fundamentally unfair."

The OFAC filing, however, says the company's "senior-most
executives knew" the sanctions barred them from signing deals with Sechin,
calling ExxonMobil "a sophisticated and experienced oil and gas
company" that routinely navigates U.S. sanctions and export rules.
Tillerson stepped down as CEO of ExxonMobil in December 2016 to lead the Trump
Administration's State Department. After the department refused reporters'
requests for comment on Thursday, Foreign Policy's Robbie Gramer
took to Twitter:

1/ The State Department won't even comment on Exxon being
fined for violating Russia sanctions while Tillerson was CEO. They referred me
to

In addition to calling for Tillerson's resignation, Kellett
said: "At every level, ExxonMobil and the rest of the fossil fuel industry
must be held accountable for their abuses. That may start with this $2 million
fine, but it will end when all Big Polluters are held liable for their abuses
and cast out of policymaking for good."

Celebrating Thursday's small victory against the world's largest
oil company, Greenpeace USA climate director Kelly Mitchell said, "Even with Rex Tillerson leading
the State Department, people in this country can hold powerful corporations
accountable and must continue to do so."

"This move should embolden United States attorneys general
in their investigations into what ExxonMobil and Rex Tillerson knew about the
risks of climate change and the company’s potential withholding of that
information from the public and shareholders," Mitchell added.

The attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts have launched probes to investigatereports that the company, for decades,
misled its investors and the public about the dangers of climate change. The
allegations have also lead to calls for Tillerson to resign from his
position as head of the U.S. State Department

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"The
master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought
the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while
the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially
their lives." Eugene Victor Debs